Pharrell Speaks On Not Winning An Oscar & The Controvery Over His “GRL” Album Cover With GQ

For GQ’s April cover, Pharrell talks to Zach Baron about politics (he’s calling it for Hillary), the Tea Party (and twerking), race, the hat-collection clamoring, and losing the Best Song Oscar.

On the Oscar snub:

“Well, trust me: when they read the results, my face was…frozen. But then I thought about it, and I just decided just to…let it go.”

On the criticism his album cover for G I R L received :

“It’s insecurity. You can be anything that you want to be, and what I chose to do is put my friends on the cover. The girl that was closest next to me is black, but they didn’t know that, so they jumped the gun. And it’s like: ‘Yo, you don’t need nobody to represent you. You represent you. You represent the best version of who you could be. You go out there and change the world.’ Because I’m black, and I wouldn’t trade my skin color for nothing. But I don’t need to keep wearing a badge that tells you that I’m black every time I do something! I’m black! My mother’s black, who’s a big part of my business; a black woman runs my business; and I’m married to a black woman. What more do you want?”

“It doesn’t make sense to me. That kind of divisiveness is not necessary at a time when we’re supposed to be unifying. That’s what happiness is all about, and if you look at my ‘Happy’ video, I had everybody in there: fat, skinny, gay, straight, purple, polka-dot, plaid, gingham print, houndstooth, alien. I f**kin’ had dogs in there! I had children in there! I had kids in there! I’m the most indiscriminate person that there is! I believe in equality.”

“Black ain’t a color: black is a spirit, and it is ubiquitous. In fact, there’s more black out in space than there is stars. We have nothing to be insecure about.”